Dante Alighieri: Quotes about love

“One day, to pass the time away, we read
of Lancelot—how love had overcome him.
We were alone, and we suspected nothing.
And time and time again that reading led
our eyes to meet, and made our faces pale,
and yet one point alone defeated us.
When we had read how the desired smile
was kissed by one who was so true a lover,
this one, who never shall be parted from me,
while all his body trembled, kissed my mouth.
A Gallehault indeed, that book and he
who wrote it, too; that day we read no more.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto V, lines 127–138 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Love , Books , Smile , Lovers

“But now was turning my desire and will,
Even as a wheel that equally is moved,
The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto XXXIII, closing lines, as translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso
Context: As the geometrician, who endeavours
To square the circle, and discovers not,
By taking thought, the principle he wants,Even such was I at that new apparition;
I wished to see how the image to the circle
Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;But my own wings were not enough for this,
Had it not been that then my mind there smote
A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish. Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:
But now was turning my desire and will,
Even as a wheel that equally is moved, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.

Love , Star , Sun

“Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XXII, lines 10–12.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love , Appearance

“For top of judgment doth not vail itself,
Because the fire of love fulfils at once
What he must satisfy who here installs him.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto VI, lines 37–39 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love

“The dames and cavaliers, the toils and ease
That filled our souls with love and courtesy,
There where the hearts have so malicious grown!”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XIV, lines 109–111 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love , Soul , Heart

“Love with delight discourses in my mind
Upon my lady's admirable gifts…
Beyond the range of human intellect.”

Dante Alighieri

Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona
de la mia donna disiosamente...
che lo 'ntelletto sovr'esse disvia.
Trattato Terzo, line 1.
Il Convivio (1304–1307)

Love

“It was now the hour that turns back the longing of seafarers and melts their heart the day they have bidden dear friends farewell and pierces the new traveller with love if he hears in the distance the bell that seems to mourn the dying day.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto VIII, lines 1–6 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love , Travel , Heart

“Love and the gracious heart are a single thing…
one can no more be without the other
than the reasoning mind without its reason.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa...
e così esser l'un sanza l'altro osa
com'alma razional sanza ragione.
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XVI (tr. Mark Musa)

Love , Heart

“Love, which is quickly kindled in the gentle heart,
seized this man for the fair form that was
taken from me, and the manner afflicts me still.
Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving,
seized me so strongly with his charm
that, as thou seest, it does not leave me yet.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto V, lines 100–105 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Love , Affliction , Heart

“Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Sì lungiamente m'ha tenuto Amore
e costumato a la sua segnoria
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XXIV

Love

“I saw within Its depth how It conceives
all things in a single volume bound by Love,
of which the universe is the scattered leaves.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto XXXIII, lines 85–87 (tr. Ciardi).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Love , Universe

“How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
If eye or touch do not relight it often.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto VIII, lines 77–78 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love